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REdefining metabolic Schemes and Pathways In plant leaf REspiration. Leaf respiration-related metabolism in terrestrial vegetation liberates considerable amounts of carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide into the atmosphere. Such gaseous losses are detrimental to biomass production but respiration also sustains nutrient assimilation and biosyntheses. This project aims to describe flux patterns in respiratory metabolism and disentangle interactions with other pathways such as photorespirat ....REdefining metabolic Schemes and Pathways In plant leaf REspiration. Leaf respiration-related metabolism in terrestrial vegetation liberates considerable amounts of carbon dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide into the atmosphere. Such gaseous losses are detrimental to biomass production but respiration also sustains nutrient assimilation and biosyntheses. This project aims to describe flux patterns in respiratory metabolism and disentangle interactions with other pathways such as photorespiration and nitrogen assimilation. It will exploit stable isotopes to quantify metabolic partitioning and show coordination between major processes. It will establish key mechanisms by which respiration dictates plant carbon balance and contributes to identifying metabolic bottle-necks in plant primary production.Read moreRead less
How do plant roots align nitrogen uptake to soil opportunities? Improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in crop plants is required to achieve sustainable plant agriculture practices that maximise productivity while minimising nitrogen fertiliser-dependent pollution. Current high-input monoculture plant production systems suffer from poor NUE and can contribute to local and global nitrogen pollution outcomes. Improving how plants manage their nitrogen uptake will improve NUE and help support Aust ....How do plant roots align nitrogen uptake to soil opportunities? Improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in crop plants is required to achieve sustainable plant agriculture practices that maximise productivity while minimising nitrogen fertiliser-dependent pollution. Current high-input monoculture plant production systems suffer from poor NUE and can contribute to local and global nitrogen pollution outcomes. Improving how plants manage their nitrogen uptake will improve NUE and help support Australian plant agriculture. This project will investigate novel technologies that re-engineer nitrate transport activity. The project will also investigate the biochemical and molecular links between nitrogen uptake on root development required for improved plant growth.Read moreRead less
How do sunflowers make protein drugs in their seeds? We recently discovered in sunflower the origin of a small protein ring that chemists have used for a decade to base designed drugs upon. This project aims to know how sunflowers make it so we may manipulate other plants to manufacture ring-based drugs.
Buried treasure: bioactive plant seed proteins evolving inside hosts. This project aims to examine how evolution in plants shortcuts the creation of new proteins by burying one within another. Scientists now realise that new genes and proteins appear frequently. A recent discovery in plant seeds involves DNA sequence insertions in a gene that makes two proteins instead of one. This project will reveal a new family of buried seed proteins, determine the rules for burying them and search plants fo ....Buried treasure: bioactive plant seed proteins evolving inside hosts. This project aims to examine how evolution in plants shortcuts the creation of new proteins by burying one within another. Scientists now realise that new genes and proteins appear frequently. A recent discovery in plant seeds involves DNA sequence insertions in a gene that makes two proteins instead of one. This project will reveal a new family of buried seed proteins, determine the rules for burying them and search plants for new examples. The first examples from plants create strongly bioactive products so the ability to dig for similar plant events will reveal new and bioactive natural products with biomedical and biotechnology applications.Read moreRead less
How scissors learn to glue: the catalysis of ligation by proteases. This project proposes to study protein-cutting enzymes from plants that are drawn into biosyntheses where they paradoxically perform protein-joining (ligation) reactions. Enzymes are everywhere, from detergents to digestion to detoxifying drugs. Industry uses artificial evolution to improve enzymes or create enzymes with new activities. By exploring the changes that allowed one such cutting enzyme to ligate, the knowledge acquir ....How scissors learn to glue: the catalysis of ligation by proteases. This project proposes to study protein-cutting enzymes from plants that are drawn into biosyntheses where they paradoxically perform protein-joining (ligation) reactions. Enzymes are everywhere, from detergents to digestion to detoxifying drugs. Industry uses artificial evolution to improve enzymes or create enzymes with new activities. By exploring the changes that allowed one such cutting enzyme to ligate, the knowledge acquired may enable protein engineering to develop designer enzymes with enhanced or suppressed ligating ability. Although protein evolution can be studied with artificial systems, natural systems are extremely valuable. Insights from studying this natural evolution of ligation may test hypotheses developed with data from artificial evolution.Read moreRead less
A new and rapidly evolving class of plant peptides. The project will study a diverse class of drug-like mini-proteins that are thought to have emerged genetically over 12 million years ago. This project will explore why plants have kept making these mini-proteins for so long and whether it is the same reason the founding member of this mini-protein class is such a good drug.
Genetic evolution of plant proteins with biomedical applications. This project will draw upon a unique combination of skills in plant genetics and biomedical research to demonstrate that plants are not just a source of novel drugs. The results will show that they also provide a powerful biotechnological platform for the discovery, understanding, design and production of new pharmaceuticals.
Harnessing peptide hormone outputs to improve root nodulation’s efficacy. This project aims to transform our understanding of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume root nodules. Root nodulation sustainably fixes sizeable amounts of nitrogen to boost crop production worldwide yet its utilisation is waning in favour of using nitrogen fertilisers. The project applies cutting-edge tools to define how two hormone systems boost and limit nitrogen fixation, respectively. The project expects to reveal w ....Harnessing peptide hormone outputs to improve root nodulation’s efficacy. This project aims to transform our understanding of symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legume root nodules. Root nodulation sustainably fixes sizeable amounts of nitrogen to boost crop production worldwide yet its utilisation is waning in favour of using nitrogen fertilisers. The project applies cutting-edge tools to define how two hormone systems boost and limit nitrogen fixation, respectively. The project expects to reveal ways to reconfigure these hormone outputs to improve nodule number and the efficacy of nitrogen fixation. The findings will benefit agriculture by reducing the reliance on costly nitrogen fertilisers, thus mitigating the huge environmental damage they cause, and will provide more sustainable ways to ensure food security.Read moreRead less
Revealing Enigma of Salt Bladders to Help Crops Cope with Salinity. In this project, the key transport systems mediating salt sequestration in halophytes are planned to be characterised and linked with cell genetic and metabolic profiles. Salinity is a major environmental hurdle affecting crop production around the world. Halophytes (naturally salt-loving plants) use specialised structures, called salt bladders, to sequester excessive salt outside their metabolically active parts. This feature i ....Revealing Enigma of Salt Bladders to Help Crops Cope with Salinity. In this project, the key transport systems mediating salt sequestration in halophytes are planned to be characterised and linked with cell genetic and metabolic profiles. Salinity is a major environmental hurdle affecting crop production around the world. Halophytes (naturally salt-loving plants) use specialised structures, called salt bladders, to sequester excessive salt outside their metabolically active parts. This feature is not utilised by crops however, and no information is available about the molecular mechanisms by which salt is pumped into bladder cells. This knowledge will allow breeders to utilise this, previously unexplored, trait to improve crop performance under conditions of salinity.Read moreRead less
A new route to controlling root system architecture and drought tolerance. This project aims to transform our understanding of the relationship between root architecture and water and nitrogen acquisition, factors critical to determining yield. We have discovered that mutants affected in a peptide hormone receptor have unique root architectural features relevant to acquiring water and nitrogen. The mutants are drought tolerant and their roots are nitrate insensitive. The project aims to define t ....A new route to controlling root system architecture and drought tolerance. This project aims to transform our understanding of the relationship between root architecture and water and nitrogen acquisition, factors critical to determining yield. We have discovered that mutants affected in a peptide hormone receptor have unique root architectural features relevant to acquiring water and nitrogen. The mutants are drought tolerant and their roots are nitrate insensitive. The project aims to define the receptor’s genetic outputs and expects to uncover new ways to improve water and nitrate acquisition and determine if our findings apply to crops. The application of these findings will reduce the severe environmental damage caused by poor nitrogen fertiliser uptake and provide sustainable ways to ensure food security.Read moreRead less